A hit by linebacker Brent Etiz forced the ball out of the hands of running back Josh Harris, but the runner was ruled down. Stanford called for instant replay, which upheld the call.

Wake Forest, with Brendan Cross now at quarterback, drove to the Stanford 18 in the final minute. But on the final play of the game, Cross was sacked by Ben Gardner.

The time: 11:37 p.m. (2:37 a.m. ET).

Fourth quarter (6:06 left): Stanford 68, Wake Forest 24

Wake Forest, with Ted Stachitis back at quarterback, pitches a ball that is deflected by a Stanford defender and recovered by the Cardinal's Chike Amajoyi at the Wake Forest 19.

Josh Nunes takes over at quarterback for Stanford and throws to Sam Knapp, a redshirt freshman out of local Menlo-Atherton High, making his first reception for the Cardinal.

Usua Amanam jukes to a dazzling 10-yard run to the 2 and redshirt freshman Andrew Stutz ran in for the score on the next play.

Fourth quarter (8:41 left): Stanford 61, Wake Forest 24

Stanford is trying to grind out the clock and move the chains. Nothing fancy. Usua Amanam picks up good yardage and quarterback Alex Loukas gains 12 for a first down.

Stanford faced a third-and-7 at the Wake 27 when Usua Amanam picked up all but a foot. With 9:19 left, Stanford went for it on fourth down and Anthony Wilkerson picked up the first, carrying two yards to the 15.

On the next play, Loukas worked a perfect fake handoff, placing the ball in the belly of Wilkerson, but pulled it back and carried upfield for the touchdown, covering 15 yards with 8:41 left.

A holding penalty pushes Stanford back to its own 43-yard line. A tight end in motion met the shotgun snap and the fell bounced free, but Loukas picked it up, losing three.

An third-down incompletion and a 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness drove Stanford into a fourth-and-32 at its 31. Daniel Zychlinski's first punt of the game was muffed, but Wake Forest recovered.

Michael Campanero takes an end-around pitch and breaks around right end for a 22-yard touchdown with 0:20 left in the third quarter.

Wake's drive covered 12 plays and 70 yards.

Third quarter (8:46 left): Stanford 55, Wake Forest 17

With Stanford playing its reserves on defense, Wake Forest drove downfield for a score, with quarterback Tanner Price scoring on a keeper from 28 yards.

Wake drove 61 yards in six plays.

Third quarter (11:05 left): Stanford 55, Wake Forest 10

Tanner Price returned at quarterback for Wake Forest. The freshman left-hander was 7-for-14 for 71 yards in the first half.

Price's third-down pass was deflected by his receiver into the arms of safety Austin Yancy, who returned it 36 yards to the Wake 13-yard line.

On first down, Andrew Luck hit tight end Ryan Hewitt for 10 yards to the 3. On the next play, Luck lofted a pass to Doug Baldwin in the left corner of the end zone for the touchdown.

Luck is 17-for-23 passing for 207 yards and four touchdowns. On the season, Luck has thrown 10 touchdowns and has zero interceptions.

Third quarter (12:59 left): Stanford 48, Wake Forest 10

Quarterback Andrew Luck and the regular starters were back to start the second half. Luck scrambled for a first down, with a 12-yard run to the 50. He has three carries for 69 yards.

Stepfan Taylor ran for nine yards, followed by Tyler Gaffney for 32 yards around left end to the Wake Forest 9-yard line. Two plays later, Taylor found a huge gap over right guard for the touchdown.

Stanford has 22 carries for 209 yards rushing so far.

Halftime: Stanford 41, Wake Forest 10

Wake Forest converted a fourth and two to continue a drive that culminated in a 48-yard field goal by Jimmy Newman with four seconds left in the half.

Second quarter (2:50 left): Stanford 41, Wake Forest 7

Wake Forest brought in a new quarterback, Ted Stachitas, who started the first two games for the Demon Deacons. It didn't do much good. Stachitas was sacked on third down Sione Fua - Stanford's fourth sack of the game.

Luck hit tight end Coby Fleener for 25 yards on the first play of the drive, to the Wake 41. Two plays later, Tyler Gaffney ran left for 22 and, on the next play, Stepfan Taylor ran right for 17 more - to the Wake 2-yard line.

After an incompletion, Stanford has a two tight-end set with Taylor in the backfield, but he was stopped for no gain. On third down, Stanford lined up in a Triple-I, with Gaffney leaping and reaching the ball over the goal line. The play was ruled down at the 1, but replay overruled the call, and Stanford had a touchdown.

Second quarter (7:42 left): Stanford 34, Wake Forest 7

Stanford regained possession after a three-and-out by Wake Forest.

One impression: Owen Marecic is having an incredible game. He's picked up two big first downs as a fullback, made a big block on a touchdown run by Gaffney, has a sack, and several tackles.

Coach Jim Harbaugh has said that one of Marecic's greatest qualities as a linebacker is that he doesn't miss tackles. When he has a player in his range, he doesn't miss and he doesn't let go.

Marecic ran down a Wake running back on a screen pass from behind.

Now, back to the game.

Wow! Andrew Luck just ran 52 yards for a touchdown. Going back to pass, he tucked the ball in, took off left, broke a tackle, and evaded a diving attempt by another defender. Luck turned right, appeared to think about going down, but saw another gap and accelerated through it - all the way to the end zone.

Spectacular!

Second quarter (11:12 left): Stanford 27, Wake Forest 7

Owen Marecic showed the other side of his skill, getting credit for a sack by forcing quarterback Tanner Price into an intentional grounding call with a heavy rush.

On third and 15, Price was leveled by blitzing linebacker Chase Thomas, who hit Price straight on for a 10-yard loss.

Wake Forest punted to Doug Baldwin, who returned it 22 yards, nearly breaking it by running right, cutting upfield, and cutting to the right again. But Baldwin was caught by the only player preventing him from a score.

Stanford gains possession at its 27-yard line with 12:19 left in the second quarter.

Again, Luck took advantage of a blitz, this time seeing cornerback A.J. Marshall coming. His pass to the right to Usua Amanam exploited the position that Marshall vacated, resulting in a touchdown to the redshirt freshman.

On the next play, Gaffney ran a sweep to the right. With key blocks from Marecic and right tackle Derek Hall, Gaffney headed for the pylon, and got there by bulling a defender into the end zone for the score.

End of first quarter: Stanford 14, Wake Forest 7

Wake Forest's drive was stopped on a sack, for one yard, by Chase Thomas. The Demon Deacons were forced to punt.

Luck completed his first seven passes, before his eighth was dropped by Stepfan Taylor on a screen pass, creating a third and 11 from its own 30.

However, Luck's third-down pass was caught spectacularly by Owusu for a first down. Owusu dived in traffic to make the catch for 20 yards.

Luck went deep on the next play, but his pass was barely too long for a diving Doug Baldwin inside the 5-yard line.

Another third and 11, this time from the Wake 49, did not result in a first down. Luck's pass to Griff Whalen was a foot short at the 39.

Stanford ran two plays, both with a hurry-up offense. The first was a three-yard gain by Stepfan Taylor. The next a deep pass to Chris Owusu, who was wide open down the right sideline.

Owusu caught the ball at the goal-line as he was hit, but completed the play. It marked the first two-touchdown game of Owusu's Stanford career.

First quarter (7:00): Stanford 7, Wake Forest 0

Wake Forest tied the game on a 22-yard end around to Chris Givens for the score. The drive covered 80 yards on six plays. Givens played a role in the play that set up the score. Freshman quarterback Tanner Price somehow evaded a posse of Stanford linemen and completed a 21-yard pass to Givens on third-and-eight.

The gain was aided by another 15 yards for a late hit on Price by Shayne Skov.

Wake Forest has implemented a triple option attack, and the diversity seemed to fool the Stanford defense on the run by Givens, who found room around the right side for the touchdown.

First quarter (9:12 left): Stanford 7, Wake Forest 0

First of all, Shayne Skov started at linebacker in his first action this season for the Cardinal. Stanford stopped Wake Forest on three-and-out, forcing a punt.

Stanford went on to drive 61 yards on nine plays to go ahead on an eight-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Luck to Chris Owusu, seeing his first action of the season.

Luck was 5-for-5 on the drive, for 44 yards. Stanford met a third-down situation only once, when Owen Marecic picked up three yards on third-and-one from the Wake Forest 11-yard line.

Stanford scored on the next play. Luck threw a screen to Owusu on the right side. Owusu threaded his way through blockers and defenders for the score.

Kickoff

Stanford has arrived with all-black uniforms - black jerseys and black pants. This is believed to be the first time Stanford has ever been dressed in black.

Kickoff to Wake Forest is taken at 8:25 p.m., the latest local start in Stanford history. That's 11:25 p.m. in Winston-Salem.

The No. 19 Cardinal is coming off a 35-0 victory over UCLA at the Rose Bowl. It was the team's first road shutout since 1974 and first shutout of the Bruins since 1941. Stanford beat Sacramento State 52-17 in their season opener on Sept. 4.

Wake Forest opened with a 53-13 victory over Presbyterian and a 54-48 triumph over Duke, both at home.

This is a rematch of last year's opener in which Wake Forest scored with two seconds left to earn a 24-17 victory in Winston-Salem, N.C.